The People’s Guide to Safe Driving

Reckless driving is, without a doubt, one of the biggest issues the society is facing in this century. A significant portion of which are made up of young drivers. Despite the fact that most drivers have equal capabilities to be behind the wheel, young drivers are simply more likely to cause and end themselves in life-threatening accidents than any other age groups. This is an alarming truth considering that quite a significant portion of drivers on the road are under 25. These accidents will affect not just the drivers themselves but also their passengers and the cars around them. This issue, however, is not due to physical differences between them and the other age groups, but merely a flaw in their mindsets.

Younger drivers tend to believe that they are “invincible”, that it would be impossible for them to be subjects of traffic accidents. It is with this belief that many choose to speed drive, tailgate, and worse of all, use their phones while behind the wheel. They convince themselves that their parents worries are pointless, and that they should not hassle themselves with such bizarre fear. The irony is that it is their lack of sensitivity on the road, their nonchalant attitude, that leads to the staggering increase of traffic accidents that we have today. While many would see that it is “common sense” that all drivers should be careful drivers, it is unfortunately not so. And as someone who have sat in the car with a reckless driver, I can confidently say that simply telling them off will not work. I remember my fear as I sat in the passenger seat, gripping onto the grab handle with an unfaltering strength. It was the first time I ever held on to it, because before I never had to. Speeding, tailgating, and multitasking happened all within minutes of each other in that thirty-minutes car ride. And if I were to do a tally on the number of times we almost got ourselves into an accident, I would have to use all ten fingers on both my hands. Inspite of my comment on his speed, the car remained to be racing at 87 miles per hour on a road that had a 65 limit. It was evident that my words were not heed to, even with my clear expression of distress. At the end of the trip, I manage to reach home unscathed, but how many can? Certainly, I was able to escape the numerous near-death experiences in this thirty minutes, but how many will be as lucky as I had been? Will I be as lucky as I had been if this were to happen again? We would not know. Although, why should our lives depend on luck when we can actively make the effort to ensure our safety? It is of utmost importance that we make the conscious effort to convince and educate our drivers on being careful drivers. We do so not just by telling, but by showing. Words will never have as much impact as pictures, videos, and numbers will. That is why driver education is important.

Driver education is not just the theory tests that we take to earn our permit, nor the five hour course that we take to register for our practical exams. Driver education can also be the signs and billboards we see on the street, or the videos we see as advertisements on Youtube, or even the stories we see on the news. Better yet, it could be skits the local police bring to our schools to demonstrate the consequences of reckless driving. Sometimes, the best kind of education are those that allow drivers to clearly see and visualise the true impact of the consequences reckless driving bring to them and the people around. By showing them the possible scenarios of which accidents can occur, drivers will be able to better internalise the importance of being vigilant on the road.

Another way good driving habits can be brought about is through repetition. The safety courses we take to become licensed drivers often occur only once in our lives. The talks that are brought into school are also usually rare to come by. Habits and beliefs are only retained if there is repetition, as such, a good way to cultivate careful drivers is by holding biannual classes in school. These classes can be held on the first day of school each semester, lasting 30 minutes each. It would be ideal for such classes to be held no more than 30 minutes as young people tend to have a shorter attention span. A presentation that is too long can easily have a reversed effect on them, in which they may instead feel that such precautions taken are overreactions. Moreover, it would be better that these classes begin in their freshman year of highschool. Although most, if not all, of the students are not of legal age to be driving yet, proper mindset takes time to develop. It is crucial that the correct belief system is instilled in young drivers before they go onto the road and not during. This is simply to ensure that even as new drivers, they can be careful and vigilant, therefore creating a safer environment for all to be in and reduce traffic deaths.

Of course, the above examples and suggestion are on an organisational level. What can we, as individuals, do to make our roads a safer place? Naturally, we must first be vigilant drivers ourselves. When everyone does their part to follow the law and traffic rules, the roads will sort itself out and traffic will flow smoothly. Accordingly, we should ensure that we are well versed in the laws that govern the road we drive on. Do not assume that these rules are “common sense” and that one need not spend time on understanding the laws of traffic. These laws can vary from state to state and sometimes even city to city. Always make sure that you know the traffic rules of the state you are going to beforehand. This is to ensure that unnecessary accidents and jams do not occur, consequently reducing the chances of traffic accidents and deaths.

An additional precaution one can take is by making assumptions. Always assume that the cars and people on the road are not aware of the traffic rules. While we would like to believe that every driver is a responsible driver, it might not be the case. So, on top of being responsible drivers ourselves, we should also always be on the lookout for potential accidents. Many a times unexpected factors like road designs, unattended children, and careless drivers can lead to traffic accidents even when we do obey the laws of the road. In cases like this, just by making the assumption of there being possible obstructions and doing a double check before making the next move will potentially save lives.

With all suggestion given, many might comment that it would not be enough to eliminate accidents and deaths on the road. That is okay. Even with the most cautious people sometimes accidents occur beyond our control. The idea of the steps listed is to reduce such incidents from happening as much as we can. While we cannot completely eradicate this issue, we can certainly change it from being an epidemic to it being a blue moon occurrence. A slight improvement is an improvement nonetheless. As long as everyone does their part to be vigilant, responsible, and careful, our roads can become a safer place.